PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


SAel/.. 


BX  9225 
Patton, 
-1932. 
A  discourse 


,H58  P37  1887 
Francis  Landey,  184i 


in  memory  of 


A  i^^U  -:  U.  «%  1  ^   A  1  ^tr -kr>'^^-*»  ISi^Ar^^ 


^^^f  ^V,    /f4'<-'*t^!^^C^.^ 


A 


DISCOURSE 

IN    MEMORY    OF 

AnCllieALDALE)(MD[yODG[,y.,LLD. 

PEOFESSOK  IN  THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY, 
PRINCETON,  N.  J. 

BY 

FRANCIS    L.  PATTON,  D.D.,  LL.D, 

Professor  in  Princeton  Theological  Seminary. 


1887. 


Copyrighted  1887  Prp„ 

JOHN  WANAMAKER,  TIMES  PKIXTING  HOUSE, 

'^  J  liiladelphia. 


'This  Discourse  was   delivered  ix  the  Chambers 
Presbyterian  Church,  2ist  December,   1886,  in 
Compliance  with  an  Invitation  from  the  Phila- 
delphia   Presbyterian    Ministerial    Association, 

AND    IS    NOW    published    AT    THEIR    REQUEST. 


MEMORIAL  DISCOURSE. 


T  FEAR  that  I  have  little  fitness  for  the  service 
^    I  have  been  so  kindly  invited  to  perforin,  be- 
yond the  fact  that  I  had  a  share  in  Dr.  Hodge's 
confidence,  that  I  loved  him  dearly,  and  that  dur- 
ing the  short  period  of  my  acquaintance  with  him 
I  had  come  to  know  him  well.    It  has  occurred  to 
me  more  than  once  since  the  preparation  of  this 
Discourse  was  undertaken,  that  some  one  who  had 
known  him  longer  and  whose  record  of  memories 
reaches  back  to  the  years  of  a  common  boyhood 
would  have  done  ampler  justice  to  this  occasion. 
For,  when  a  great  man  dies,  there  is  a  natural, 
and  surely  a  pardonable,  curiosity  on  the  part  of 
all  to  know  something  of  his  early  life.     We  love 
to   study    his  history  in    the  light  of  the    facts 
that  made  up  the  totality  of  his  career,  and  to 
read  in  stories  of  his  childhood  the  promise  of  a 
ereatness  attained  in  later  years.     In  the  case  of 

5 


one  like  Dr.  Hodge,  whose  personality  was  so 
unique,  so  manifold,  and  so  manifestly  marked 
by  genius,  we  naturally  suppose  that  those  who 
have  been  his  companions  for  a  lifetime  are  in 
possession  of  reminiscences  that  would  abun- 
dantly gratify  this  very  natural  desire.  It  may 
yet  fall  to  the  lot  of  one  specially  qualified,  to 
do  what  obviously  I  cannot  do.  I  must  content 
myself  with  describing  what  I  saw,  and  repre- 
senting Dr.  Hodge  to  you  as  he  appeared  to  me. 
That  we  were  engaged  in  kindred  pursuits,  that 
we  had  both  taught  from  the  same  text-book,  and 
had  traversed  in  frequent  conversations  the  lead- 
ing topics  embraced  in  Dr.  Charles  Hodge's  Sys- 
tematic Theology,  may  qualify  me  in  a  measure 
for  forming  a  just  estimate  of  his  position  in  the 
theological  world.  This  estimate  I  shall  at  least 
try  to  make,  not  in  the  form  of  fulsome  eulogy — 
for  a  simple  statement  of  the  truth  will  be  eulogy 
enough — but  in  tender  regard  for  his  precious 
memory  and  under  the  restrictions  of  sober  fact. 
The  death  of  Dr.  Hodge  is  such  a  sore  be- 
reavement to  our  entire  Church,  that  a  memorial 
service  held  in  the  midst  of  a  larger  community 
than  that  embraced  in  the  University-town  where 


the  last  years  of  his  life  were  spent,  seems  emi- 
nently proper;  and  I  know  of  no  place  where 
that  service  could  be  more  appropriately  held 
than  in  this  city  of  his  forefathers,  the  city  that 
he  loved  above  all  others,  and  for  which  his  last 
and  ripest  work  was  done.  On  this  day  of  the 
week  and  at  this  hour  of  the  day,  many  of  you 
had  hoped  to  hear  his  voice  not  many  days  hence 
as  you  heard  it  last  winter,  when  he  exhibited 
so  clearly,  with  such  aptness  of  illustration  and 
characteristic  affluence  of  expression,  the  great 
doctrines  of  our  faith.  How  little  any  one  dreamed 
that  death  would  give  such  significance  to  his 
closing  words  when  for  the  last  time  he  addressed 
the  large  audience  that  had  gathered  week  by 
week  to  hear  him  !  How  little  did  any  one  sup- 
pose that  these  closing  words  were  to  be 
treasured  afterwards  as  the  swan-song  of  the 
dying  theologian ! — "  We  shall  meet  together 
here  no  more.  Let  us  pledge  one  another  to 
reassemble  in  heaven.  We  part  as  pilgrims 
part  upon  the  road.  Let  us  take  our  way 
heavenward,  for  if  we  do  we  shall  soon,  some  of 
us  very  soon,  be  at  home  with  the  Lord."  His 
removal  is   God's   strange  work.     We  can  only 


say :  "  I  was  dumb,  I  opened  not  my  mouth  be- 
cause thou  didst  it."  We  bow  submissively  to 
our  Father's  will,  and  are  here  to-day  to  thank 
God  for  the  life  of  Archibald  Alexander 
Hodge,  to  read  afresh  the  record  of  that  life,  and 
in  its  lessons  find  new  inspiration. 

Philadelphia,  as  I  have  said,  was  the  city 
of  Dr.  Hodge's  ancestors.  His  great-grand- 
father, his  grandfather,  and  his  eminent  uncle, 
lived  and  died  here.  His  mother's  ancestry,  in 
several  lines  of  descent,  is  still  numerously  rep- 
resented here.  His  father  was  born  here  in 
1797,  and  married  here  in  1822.  Archibald 
Alexander  was  born  in  Princeton  on  the  i8th 
day  of  July,  1823.  An  old  frame-house  on  the 
corner  of  Witherspoon  Street  is  still  pointed 
out  as  the  place  where  he  first  saw  the  light. 
He  grew  up  in  an  intellectual  atmosphere. 
During  his  boyhood  his  father's  study  was  the 
meeting-place  for  all  the  great  lights  of  Prince- 
ton. The  Old  and  New  School  controversies, 
and  the  New  Haven  Divinity  were  discussed 
in  his  hearing  by  men  like  Dod,  the  Alex- 
anders, John  Maclean,  and  Charles  Hodge.  The 
Princeton  Reviciv  began    its    career  in   his   boy- 


hood,  and  he  was  familiar  with  all  the  men 
who  were  active  in  its  organization.  If  there 
is  any  advantage  in  breathing  "  the  atmosphere 
of  floating  knowledge,"  which  Dugald  Stewart 
says  is  "  around  every  seminary  of  learning," 
Archibald  Hodge  must  have  enjoyed  it  to  the 
full.  Yet  he  does  not  seem  to  have  been  a 
very  studious  boy  or  over-fond  of  books.  I 
am  inclined  to  think  that  boys,  as  a  rule, 
do  not  care  much  for  intellectual  atmospheres, 
and  that  they  do  not  profit  so  much  by  their 
environments  as  we  might  suppose.  Books  are 
too  numerous  to  be  counted  luxuries  by  the 
sons  of  literary  men,  and  literary  men  them- 
selves come  into  too  close  contact  with  their 
sons  to  be  their  heroes.  It  is  the  boy  who 
gets  knowledge  under  difficulties,  who  buys  his 
Virgil  only  by  saving  pennies,  who  has  felt  the 
pangs  of  book-hunger  without  the  means  of 
gratifying  his  appetite,  that  is  more  likely  to 
develop  a  love  of  reading  and  to  devour  libra- 
ries. Thirst  for  knowledge  young  Archibald's 
environment  did  not  give  him.  But  it  gave  him 
the  air  of  one  who  is  to  the  manner  born.  It  saved 
him  from  priggishness  and  conceit.     It  kept  him 


from  displays  of  vanity  and  egotism  that  are 
so  apt  to  mar  the  greatness  of  men  who  have 
transcended  the  intellectual  conditions  of  their 
childhood.  In  College  he  was  one  of  Profes- 
sor Henry's  most  distinguished  pupils.  It  was 
through  the  influence  of  this  eminent  man  that 
he  developed  the  taste  for  physical  science  that 
he  retained  through  life  ;  and  it  is  probable,  that, 
next  to  his  own  father.  Professor  Henry  exerted  a 
more  formative  influence  upon  his  mind  than  any 
other  teacher  he  ever  had.  He  was  graduated 
in  1841  ;  he  taught  awhile  at  the  Lawrenceville 
School,  and  was  for  a  year  or  two  after  that  a 
tutor  in  the  College.  In  the  Seminary  he  was 
one  of  a  group  of  students,  consisting,  besides 
himself,  of  Messrs.  Lacy,  McPheeters,  Phillips 
and  Scott,  who  were  specially  interested  in  the 
study  of  Systematic  Theology.  Dr.  Charles 
Hodge  was  then  beginning  to  write  his  lectures. 
The  members  of  this  group  distributed  among 
themselves  the  work  of  taking  a  verbatim  report 
of  these  lectures,  which  thev  were  in  the  habit 
of  putting  together  in  connected  form  after  the 
lecture  was  over.  Besides  this,  they  were  re- 
quired  to    read    Turrettin  and    present   written 

10 


answers  to  questions  v/hich  Dr.  Hodge  himself 
prepared  every  week.  In  these  days  of  a 
crowded  curricuhun,  it  could  hardly  be  ex- 
pected that  students  should  devote  so  much 
time  to  a  department  as  important  even  as 
Systematic  Theology  ;  and  now  that  they  can 
for  the  first  part  listen  indolently  to  lectures  with 
a  printed  syllabus  in  their  hands,  the  labor  of 
taking  notes  has  been  greatly  reduced  :  but  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  those  who  were  willing  to 
work  according  to  the  old  method  just  described 
became  thorough  theologians.  It  was  through 
this  method  of  study,  taken  in  connection  with 
conversations  with  his  father  on  theological  sub- 
jects, that  Archibald  Hodge  laid  the  foundation 
for  his  own  eminent  career,  though  no  one 
would  have  prophesied — and  least  of  all  his 
father — that  he  would  one  day  be  a  teacher  of 
theology  himself  On  one  occasion,  however, 
he  won  a  compliment  from  his  father  which  he 
must  have  valued  highly';  for  he  has  told  me 
the  story  more  than  once.  It  seems  that  he  had 
written  an  essay,  and  on  reading  it  to  Dr.  Charles 
Hodge,  that  distinguished  theologian  looked  up 
with    an    expressionof  pleased  astonishment  on 


II 


his  face,  and  said  that  Alexander  must  read  the 
essay  to  the  class.  I  would  give  a  great  deal  to 
see  that  essay ;  for  I  doubt  not  that  it  would 
be  another  illustration  of  the  well-known  fact  that 
a  man's  best  and  ripest  thinking  often  consists 
in  the  development  of  ideas  that  are  germinally 
manifested  in  early  life.  I  am  pretty  confident 
that  the  subject  of  the  essay  was  the  Relation 
of  God  to  the  World, — a  topic  which  was  the 
subject  of  Dr.  Hodge's  latest  thought,  and  which 
he  dealt  with  in  a  forth-coming  article,  the  manu- 
script of  which  was  placed  in  my  hands  only  a 
few  weeks  before  his  death.* 

Leaving  the  Seminary,  Archibald  Hodge 
offered  himself  to  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions, 
was  accepted,  married,  and  sailed  for  India  in 
1847.  ^^^  stay  in  India  was  short,  owing  to  his 
own  illness  and  that  of  his  wife.  He  rendered 
important  service,  however,  to  the  Mission  at 
Allahabad,  harmonizing  discordant  elements  and 
gaining  personal  influence  and  affection,  which 
rendered  his  return  a  serious  disappointment  to 
his  colleagues.  But  what  was  far  more  import- 
ant, his  experience  in  the  mission-field  enhanced 

*Presbyterian  Review,  January,  1887. 

12 


his  zeal  for  the  mission-cause,  gave  him  a  grasp 
of  the   missionary  problem,  and  an  interest  in 
missionaries  that  made  him  always  the  trusted 
counsellor  of  all    those  among   his    pupils  who 
contemplated  a   missionary  career.     If  the    stu- 
dents wished  advice,   they  went  to  him  :  if  the 
Sunday  evening  missionary  meeting  was  to    be 
addressed,  he  was  called  upon  :  if,  at  the  Monthly 
Concert,  the  expected  speaker  failed  to  arrive,  he 
was  called  upon  :  if  the  son  of  a  converted  Brah- 
min was  sent    here  to  be  educated,  he  was  his 
guardian  :  if  a  penniless  Oriental,  bent  on  knowl- 
edge, and  seeking  it,  that  he  might  carry  the  gos- 
pel back  to  his   countrymen,  sought   premature 
admission    to   the  Seminary,  he  found  an  eager 
advocate    in    Dr.   Hodge,  if  anything   could   be 
said   in  his  behalf;    and    if,  as  sometimes   hap- 
pened, it  was  necessary  to  let  him  know  that  his 
coming  had   been  a  mistake,  kind  words   from 
Dr.  Hodge,  and   not   infrequently  a  draft  upon 
his  exchequer,  sent  him  away  in  peace  :   if  the 
Inter-Seminary  Missionary  Conference  held  its 
meetings  at  Hartford,  Dr.  Hodge  must  make  an 
address  :    if  it  met  in   Princeton,  Dr.  Hodge  at 
least  must  pray. 

13 


Dr.  Hodge  returned  from  India  with  his 
wife  and  two  children  in  1850.  In  185 1,  he 
settled  in  Lower  West  Nottingham,  Md.  It  was 
a  rural  charge,  and  the  salary — a  little  more  than 
six  hundred  dollars  a  year — was  very  inadequate: 
but  it  was  better  than  nothing,  and  it  afforded  him 
an  opportunity  to  preach  the  gospel.  He  was 
not  indifferent  to  pecuniary  compensation,  nor 
ignorant  of  the  purchasing  power  of  money.  On 
the  contrary,  his  action  in  this  instance  is  admir- 
ably illustrative  of  the  wise  and  cautious  fore- 
thought in  money-matters,  which  characterized 
his  whole  life.  He  did  not  put  the  call  in  his 
pocket  and  wait  for  an  opportunity  to  compare 
it  with  another ;  nor  did  he  act  like  an  auctioneer — 
using  a  bid  from  one  church  to  stimulate  a  higher 
bid  from  another ;  nor  did  he  get  his  friends  to 
correspond  with  such  vacant  churches  as  he 
deemed  worthy  of  being  served  by  his  gifts  ;  nor, 
going  to  West  Nottingham,  did  he  plan  for  a 
scale  of  expenditure  exceeding  his  income,  with 
the  idea  that  when  his  necessities  became  known 
friends  would  rally  to  his  support.  He  went 
there  with  a  deliberate  determination  that,  come 
what  may,  he  would  live  on  his  salary  and  keep 

14 


out  of  debt.  He  even  took  a  few  dollars  that  he 
had  in  his  possession,  and,  providing  against  the 
direst  contingency  possible,  secured  a  policy  of 
life-insurance;  and  actually  lived  without  debt 
and  paid  his  premiums — an  example,  I  think,  to 
multitudes  in  the  ministry  and  out  of  it,  whose 
lack  of  thrift  and  forethought  has  far  more 
to  do  with  the  distress  of  widows  and  orphans 
than  is  commonly  supposed.  I  mention  this, 
because  there  are  men  among  us  who  remain 
unemployed  simply  because  they  will  not  take 
the  churches  they  can  get,  and  who  seem  to 
have  the  impression  that  if  they  bury  themselves 
in  small  places  remote  from  cities  and  away  from 
railroads,  God  will  not  know  how  to  find  them 
when  the  great  work  is  ready  which  he  has  for 
them  to  do.  But  He  found  Alexander  Hodge 
when  the  church  in  Fredericksburg  was  vacant 
in  1855;  He  found  him  when  Wilkes-Barre 
wanted  a  pastor  in  1861  ;  and  He  found  him 
again  when  Allegheny  Seminary  stood  in  need 
of  a  systematic  theologian  in  1864 — each  step 
proving  in  the  end  to  be  a  preparation  for  the 
work  that  Dr.  Hodge  was  subsequently  to  do 
in  the  Chair  of  Didactic  Theology  in   Princeton. 

15 


Few  men  have  the  courage  to  seek  obscurity  for 
the  sake  of  its  advantages,  but  there  can  be  no 
doubt  of  the  intellectual  advantages  of  a  quiet 
country  charge.  When  I  hear  men  complain  of 
the  lack  of  stimulus  in  a  rural  parish,  or  find 
them  longing  for  opportunity  to  preach  to  audi- 
ences more  cultivated  and  worthy  of  their  talents, 
I  feel  disposed  to  think  that  the  poor  quality  of 
their  intellectual  fabrics  is  due  not  so  much  to 
lack  of  proper  appliances,  but  rather  to  dearth  of 
the  raw  material.  Many  a  man  will  tell  you  that 
he  owes  all  that  he  ever  afterwards  became,  to 
the  circumstance  that,  under  God,  he  enjoyed 
the  quiet  of  rural  solitude,  and  had  opportu- 
nity of  uninterrupted  thought  and  reading. 
Though  not  a  prolific  writer.  Dr.  Hodge  was 
always  busy  with  his  pen,  and  it  is  worth  while  to 
remember  that  the  *'  Outlines  of  Theology"  was 
not  the  fruit  of  a  leisurely  professorship.  It  went 
out  from  the  little  study  in  the  parsonage  at 
Fredericksburg;  and  what  has  since  that  day 
become  a  text-book  in  theology  in  different 
languages  was  first  of  all  preached  to  a  congrega- 
tion of  Presbyterians  in  Virginia.  It  is  said,  some- 
times, that  we  cannot  preach  theology.     Here  is 

i6 


a  theology,  however,  every  word  of  which  was 
preached,  and  not  onl}^  preached,  but  hstened 
to  with  eagerness,  first  in  Fredericksburg  and 
afterwards  in  Wilkes-Barre.  It  was  during  his 
Fredericksburg  pastorate  that  Dr.  Hodge  became 
aware  of  his  power  of  extemporaneous  address. 
From  that  time  and  increasingly  until  his  death 
he  was  pre-eminently  a  preacher.  When  he  went 
to  Allegheny  his  gifts  soon  became  known,  and 
he  was  in  very  general  demand.  Before  long  he 
accepted  the  pastorate  of  a  congregation  there 
which  soon  built  and  organized  what  is  known  as 
the  North  Presbyterian  Church;  and  continued  to 
perform  the  double  function  of  pastor  and  profes- 
sor until  he  came  to  Princeton.  I  have  never  heard 
that  any  one  found  fault  with  him  on  the  ground 
of  "  pluralities."  It  would  have  been  most  unwise 
to  do  so.  Dr.  Hodge  was  not  the  less  a  professor 
by  being  a  pastor.  He  never  would  have  been  a 
man  of  distinguished  theological  erudition,  with 
the  most  abundant  leisure  ;  for,  though  fond  of 
reading,  he  had  not  the  tastes  of  a  specialist.  The 
two  functions  in  his  case  acted  and  reacted  in  favor 
of  each  other.  His  profound  knowledge  of  the- 
ology, his  habit  of  pondering  upon  theological 

17 


problems,  his  power  of  minute  analysis,  and  his 
determination  to  see  every  subject  with  which  he 
dealt  in  its  various  relations,  made  preaching  a 
very  simple  matter,  and  he  fed  his  congregation 
with  the  finest  of  the  wheat.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  necessity  under  which  he  rested  of  presenting 
theological  truth  in  forms  suited  to  the  minds  of 
ordinary  people,  fostered  in  him  his  natural  gift 
for  illustration  and  saved  him  from  becoming  a 
mere  dealer  in  the  dry  formulas  of  scholasticism. 
Many  a  spark  struck  out  in  the  class-room  was 
fanned  into  a  flame  of  glowing  illustration  in  the 
pulpit;  and  many  a  popular  sermon,  I  venture  to 
say,  served  to  light  up  and  lend  fervor  to  the 
scientific  discussions  of  the  class-room.  There 
was  an  interchange  of  amenities,  I  doubt  not,  be- 
tween the  pulpit  and  the  professor's-chair,  that 
was  of  advantage  to  both;  and  the  double  duty 
he  performed  at  Allegheny  had  much  to  do  with 
the  superlative  eminence  he  afterwards  achieved 
in  doing  what  many  will  regard  as,  on  the  whole, 
the  greatest  work  of  his  life. 

In  1877,  it  became  apparent  that  some  relief 
should  be  afforded  Dr.  Charles  Hodge,  who, 
though  entering  upon  his  eightieth  year,  was  still 

18 


teaching  both  Didactic  and  Exegetical  Theology. 
There  could  be  no  doubt  respecting  the  man  who 
was  most  conspicuously  fit  to  be  the  associate 
and  successor  of  Dr.  Charles  Hodge.  It  might 
seem  like  an  ungracious  act  to  bring  him  from 
Allegheny;  but  when  the  interests  of  the  Church 
at  large  were  taken  into  account,  there  could  be 
no  doubt  that  it  was  of  paramount  importance  that 
the  chair  of  Systematic  Theology  in  Princeton 
should  be  filled  by  the  best  available  man.  Dr. 
A.  A.  Hodge  was  one  of  Princeton's  noblest  sons, 
and  his  alma  mater  exercised  her  natural  rig-ht  to 
summon  him  to  her  help  in  her  hour  of  need. 
He  was  inaugurated  on  the  8th  November,  1877. 
Referring  to  this  occasion,  a  writer  in  the  Presby- 
terian said  :  "  During  all  the  services,  we  noticed 
that  many  eyes  were  turned  to  a  corner  of  the 
church,  in  which  a  venerable  man  sat  apart  com- 
muning with  himself,  with  his  heart,  doubtless, 
filled  with  varying  emotions."  The  reference,  of 
course,  is  to  Dr.  Charles  Hodge,  of  whom  his 
biographer  says  :  '*  His  mind  must  have  gone 
back  to  August  12,  18 12,  when  he,  a  stripling 
lying  on  the  rail  of  the  gallery  of  the  same  church, 
looked    down  on   the   inauguration    of  Dr.    A. 


19 


Alexander  to  the  same  office.  For  from  August 
12,  1812,  to  November  18,  1877,  for  more  than 
sixty-five  years,  there  had  been  only  two  pro- 
fessors of  Systematic  Theology  in  Princeton,  and 
Dr.  Hodge  received  the  office  from  a  man  he 
delighted  to  call  father,  and  now  transmitted  it 
to  his  son." 

The  career  of  Dr.  Charles  Hodge  was  won- 
derful and  beautiful  beyond  expression.  During 
his  long  life  of  uninterrupted  literary  activity  he 
had  been  brought  into  close  relations  with  every 
active  movement  in  what  was  a  very  active  period 
of  the  Church's  life.  He  had  achieved  eminence 
in  every  sphere  of  ministerial  renown :  preacher, 
debater,  reviewer,  exegete,  ecclesiastic,  historian, 
and  systematic  theologian, — he  was  great  in  each 
of  these  dimensions  of  measurement.  His  plans 
ripened,  and  hopes  that  others  entertained  in 
his  behalf  were  fully  realized.  He  garnered 
the  wisdom  of  his  life  and  left  his  Theology 
as  a  legacy  to  the  world.  When  old  age  came 
upon  him  he  stood  between  two  strong  sons  who 
lightened  his  labors  and  afterward  divided  be- 
tween them  the  work  that  he  left  behind.  He 
kept  his  faculties  to  the  last,  and  taught  his  classes 


20 


within  a  few  weeks  of  his  death.  His  death  was 
as  ideal  as  his  life  had  been  :  and,  therefore,  when, 
one  beautiful  afternoon  in  June  of  1878,  his  own 
sons  took  up  their  sad  burden  and  carried  him  to 
his  grave,  we  all  felt  that  everything  was  exactly 
as  we  could  have  wished. 

We  must  look  now,  however,  upon  a  very 
different  picture.  The  coming  of  Dr.  A.  A. 
Hodge  brought  new  life  to  Princeton  Seminary; 
and  when  his  father  died  the  work  went  on  with- 
out abatement.  He  filled  his  father's  place.  In 
the  pulpit,  at  the  Conference,  and  in  the  class- 
room, he  Avas  a  power,  and  was  recognized  as 
such  by  his  colleagues  and  his  pupils.  We 
listened  to  him  with  pride  and  admiration,  and 
derived  from  him  intellectual  refreshment  and 
spiritual  profit.  We  fondly  hoped  that  many  years 
of  labor  were  before  him,  and  that,  like  his  father, 
by  and  by  he  would  have  a  glorious  sunset. 
Alas  for  us!  his  sun  has  gone  down  at  noon;  he 
has  been  taken  away  in  the  prime  of  his  man- 
hood, and  when  to  all  outward  seeming  he  was 
physically  and  intellectually  at  his  best.  It  is 
not  strange  that  Princeton  is  in  mourning.  She 
has  met  as  great  a  less  as  she  could  possibly  sus- 


21 


tain.     Dr.  Hodge  was  emphatically  a  Princeton 
man.     He  was  bom  there.     It  was   his  father's 
home,  and  he  was  bound  to  it  by  a  net-work  of 
domestic  relationships.     He    was   loyal  beyond 
measure  to   the  ideas  with   which   Princeton  is 
identified,  and  loved  to    refer  to   her  traditions. 
His  large  heart  embraced  the  world,  but  no  one 
could  mistake  the   special  place  that  Princeton 
had    in    his    affections.      In    the    distribution   of 
hypothetical  millions  of  which,  according  to  his 
habit  of  jocose   exaggeration,  he  was  so   fond, 
it  was  Princeton  College  and  Princeton  Seminary 
that  he  always   thought   of.     Sometimes,  when 
my    own    heart  yearns    for   the   scenes    of    my 
childhood    and   the   blue  waters  of  my    island- 
home,  I  can  appreciate  his  affection  for  Prince- 
ton :  it  was  home.     I  believe  that  it  gratified  his 
heart's  desire  when  he  went  back  there  to  live : 
and  after  that,  to  be  his    father's    successor,  to 
sit  in  his  father's  study,  to  walk  under  the  shade 
of   the   elms  that   his  father  had  planted,  and, 
in  the  ways  opened  to  him  by  Providence,  to  do 
the  kind  of  work  his  father  did,  was  his  highest 
ambition.     I  do  not  know  what  his  epitaph  will 
be ;  but  I  venture  to   say,  that  no   words  will   so 


22 


well  convey  the  idea  of  what  he  would  regard 
as  a  rounded  life  of  realized  desire  as  those 
which  state  the  simple  fact  that  he  was  Third 
Professor  of  Theology  in  Princeton  Seminary. 
Of  course,  since  Princeton  was  so  dear  to  him,  he 
was  correspondingly  dear  to  Princeton.  A  shock 
of  personal  bereavement  was  felt  by  every  one 
and  by  all  classes  when  word  went  out  on  the 
morning  of  the  12th  November  that  Dr.  A.  A. 
Hodge  was  dead.  A  man  may  do  excellent  work 
in  his  department  and  not  be  generally  known 
in  a  community  as  small  even  as  Princeton. 
Were  such  a  man  to  pass  away,  the  public  might 
acknowledge  that  a  great  light  had  gone  out,  but 
he  would  not  be  generally  missed.  Dr.  Hodge, 
however,  was  a  citizen  and  did  his  duty  as  such. 
Everybody  knew  him.  He  was  public-spirited. 
He  helped  every  good  cause.  We  met  him  in 
social  circles  and  at  the  house  of  mourning. 
He  was  a  leading  man  in  his  church  and  a 
trustee  of  the  College.  In  the  Faculty  he  mani- 
fested the  excellences  without  the  faults  or 
defects  which  sometimes  show  themselves  when 
men  are  associated  together.  He  was  not  opin- 
ionated, nor  arrogant,  nor  reticent,  nor  indifferent. 

23 


He  pressed  his  views  with  manly  confidence  in 
their  correctness,  but  could  yield  gracefully  to  an 
adverse  decision.  He  was  not  simply  attached 
to  the  Seminary.  His  life  was  grafted  into  its 
corporate  existence,  and  he  was  always  planning 
for  its  interests.  He  v/as  frank,  generous,  full  of 
good  fellowship,  and  we  were  exceedingly  filled 
with  his  company.  His  study-door,  facing  us  as 
we  went  to  and  fro,  was  an  invitation  to  turn  in 
for  a  friendly  chat.  Ah  !  the  echo  of  his  familiar 
greeting  lingers  in  my  ear,  and  I  seem  to  hear  him 
tell  me  to  **come  again." 

Men  die,  but  institutions  live.  God,  no 
doubt,  will  send  a  man  worthy  of  the  fourth 
place  in  this  great  succession.'*'-  He  may  be  as 
great  and  in  some  respects  even  greater  than 
his  predecessors,  but  no  matter  what  his  attain- 
ments may  be,  it  is  not  likely  that  he  can  be  to 
us  what  Dr.  Hodge  has  been.  The  glory  has  de- 
parted from  Princeton  Seminary  and  the  Church 
at  large  has  lost  a  leader.  I  claim  for  him  no 
supremacy,  of  course,  among  contemporary  theo- 
logians, but  no  one  will  hesitate  to  make  un- 
grudging recognition   of  his  greatness.     It  will 

*Dr.  B.  B.  Warfield,  of  the  Western  Theological  Seminary,   Allegheny, 
Pa.,  has  since  received  and  accepted  a  call  to  this  position. 

24 


be  hard  to  appreciate  the  magnitude  of  the  loss 
which  the  Church  has  sustained  unless  we  con- 
sider the  many  lines  of  activity  along  which 
Dr.  Hodge  was  working.  I  sometimes  meet  with 
a  statement  (which  looks  a  little  like  jealousy  of 
the  professorial  function),  to  the  effect  that  the 
pastors  and  not  the  professors  determine  the 
theology  of  the  Church.  It  is  true  that  the 
pastors  teach  the  people  and  in  that  sense  deter- 
mine the  Church's  theology :  and  from  some  of 
the  specimens  that  have  come  under  my  eye  of 
late,  I  should  judge  that  it  is  very  poor  theology 
the  people  sometimes  get.  But  who  teach  the 
pastors  ? 

Think  now  of  what  Dr.  Hodge  was  doing. 
Year  by  year  he  was  sending  forth  men  by 
forties  and  by  fifties,  into  cities  and  towns, 
north  and  south,  east  and  west,  as  settled  pas- 
tors and  as  missionaries,  to  India,  to  the  terri- 
tories, to  South  America,  and  the  islands  of  the 
sea — preaching  a  theology  which  he  had  taught 
them.  His  pen  was  busy  defending  truth  and 
refuting  error.  As  a  watchman  on  the  walls  of 
Zion,  he  was  sleepless,  vigilant,  bold,  clear-eyed, 
discriminating:  not -giving  premature  or  unneces- 

25 


sary  alarm,  not  allowing  the  citadel  to  be  sur- 
prised :  faithful  to  the  last  degree,  and  when  he 
put  the  trumpet  to  his  lips,  giving  no  uncertain 
sound.  He  was  writing,  preaching,  lecturing, 
making  addresses,  coming  into  contact  with  men, 
influencing  them  and,  by  doing  so,  widening 
the  influence  of  truth.  Men  far  and  near  corres- 
ponded with  him  and  sought  his  counsel.  He 
had  the  confidence  of  the  Church  as  few  men 
have.  The  North  loved  him  ;  the  South  honored 
him.  In  Canada,  in  Great  Britain,  and  over  the 
wide  missionary  area,  his  judgments  on  theolog- 
ical matters  were  deferred  to  and  quoted  with 
respect.  If  a  theological  question  was  under 
debate,  a  few  lines  from  his  peri  in  a  religious 
paper  went  the  rounds  of  the  press.  Think  now 
of  the  work  that  came  to  a  stand-still  when 
God's  finger  was  laid  upon  that  throbbing  heart, 
and  estimate,  if  you  can,  the  loss  that  Christen- 
dom has  sustained. 

Dr.  Hodge  was  in  the  zenith  of  his  power 
when  he  died.  Every  element  that  entered  into 
his  eminent  reputation  put  on  its  best  expression 
in  the  closing  years  of  his  life.  Let  us  seek  to 
form  a  just  estimate  of  him   as  a  theologian  and 

26 


a  man.  We  shall  understand  him  better  as  a 
theologian  if  we  know  him  as  a  man,  for  the  ele- 
ments of  manhood  gave  form  to  his  theology: 
and  we  shall  not  understand  him  as  a  man  if  we 
do  not  know  him  as  a  theologian,  for  theology 
was  a  large  part  of  his  manhood.  His  theology 
flashed  into  prismatic  colors  on  the  diamond- 
points  of  his  manifold  personality,  and  his  man- 
hood was  warmed  by  a  religious  fervor  that 
streamed  like  the  fires  of  the  opal  from  the 
theological  convictions  imbedded  in  the  core 
of  his  being. 

Systematic  Theology  is  the  most  important, 
the  most  comprehensive  and  the  most  difficult 
of  all  the  theological  Disciplines.  It  is,  in  fact, 
the  synthesis  of  them  all.  The  ideal  dogmatician 
should  be  a  good  philologist,  a  good  exegete, 
and  a  thorough  student  of  Biblical  criticism.  He 
should  know  the  history  of  opinion  and  should 
understand  the  forces,  ecclesiastical  and  philo- 
sophical, that  in  the  successive  centuries  have  been 
at  work  on  doctrinal  beliefs.  He  should  be  able  to 
prove  the  separate  doctrines  from  Scripture,  to 
defend  them  against  error,  and  then,  looking  at 
them  with  the  eye  of  an  architect,  build  them  into 

27 


system.  It  is,  therefore,  very  seldom  that  we  find 
an  ideal  systematic  theologian.  It  is  seldom  that 
scholarship,  erudition  and  philosophical  acumen 
meet  in  such  proportions  in  any  individual  as  to 
produce  this  result.  We  must  be  contented, 
therefore,  to  find  men  in  whom  the  predominance 
of  any  one  of  these  qualities  implies  a  relative 
deficiency  of  the  other  two.  We  must  bear  this 
in  mind  when  we  undertake  to  form  an  estimate 
of  Dr.  A.  A.  Hodge.  When  he  entered  the 
Theological  Seminary  he  had  the  education 
which  the  ordinary  American  college  offered 
its  students  forty  years  ago.  He  was  gener- 
ally well-informed,  fond  of  physical  science, 
interested  in  metaphysical  problems,  and  pos- 
sessed of  fair  classical  attainments.  He  was  a 
diligent  student  of  Systematic  Theology  in  the 
Seminary,  as  we  have  already  seen,  and  went  out 
well  furnished  with  a  theology  that  he  under- 
stood thoroughly,  and  could  use  with  facility.  In 
after  life,  and  through  a  professorial  career  of 
over  twenty  years  he  devoted  himself  exclusively 
to  this  department.  He  made  himself  acquainted 
with  the  creed-statements  of  the  Church,  and 
knew  both  their  contents  and  the  history  of  their 

28 


formation.  He  was  a  diligent  reader  of  the  books 
that  trace  the  development  of  doctrine,  and  that 
discuss  historically  or  polemically  the  great  sys- 
tems of  theological  opinion.  He  was  a  student 
of  the  Bible,  and  divine  testimony  was  his  test 
of  every  doctrinal  statement.  We  can  see  in 
his  "  Outlines"  how  constantly  he  appeals  to  the 
Scriptures,  and  how  much  he  refers  to  the  great 
Reformed  theologians  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
Yet  he  was  not  distinguished  either  for  erudition 
or  scholarship.  His  distinguishing  characteristic 
as  a  theologian — I  mean,  as  compared  with  others 
of  the  class  to  which  he  belongs — was  his  power 
as  a  thinker.  He  had  a  mind  of  singular  acute- 
ness,  and  though  never  a  professed  student  of 
metaphysics,  was  essentially  and  by  nature  a 
metaphysician.  He  had  great  reverence  for  God's 
word,  and  was  jealous  of  the  intrusion  of  philos- 
ophy into  theology :  but  he  was,  nevertheless, 
by  temperament  and  by  habit,  a  philosophical 
theologian.  He  loved  the  "  high  priori  road," 
and  might  have  been  seen  walking  on  it  in  many 
an  hour  of  quiet  contemplation.  He  loved  some- 
times to  take  short  cuts  to  his  conclusions,  seeing 
in  advance  of  special  induction  that,  since  this 

29 


and  that  are  so,  this  and  that  arc  also  so.  He 
would  not  manipulate  texts,  however,  to  serve 
the  purposes  of  foregone  conclusions,  nor  build 
towering  structures  of  dogma  upon  the  obiter 
dicta  of  inspired  writers.  He  had  broad  and 
scientific  ideas  of  what  a  dogmatic  induction 
ought  to  be,  though  he  did  not  have  the  patience 
requisite  for  minute  exegetical  investigation.  He 
was  always  reasoning  on  the  relations  of  doc- 
trines to  each  other,  and  to  the  great  scheme  of 
grace.  But  he  never  ceased  to  affirm  our  entire 
dependence  upon  the  Bible  ior  the  authority 
of  doctrines;  and  so  distrustful  was  he  of  human 
reason,  so  conscious  at  the  same  time  of  the 
injury  that  has  resulted  from  the  alliance  of 
theology  with  a  false  philosophy,  that  I  believe 
he  would  hardly  have  liked  it  if  I  had  called  him 
a  philosophical  theologian.  Yet,  that  is  what 
he  was.  Theology  was  to  him  a  revealed  world- 
view.  He  would  have  said  with  Henry  B.  Smith, 
"  Incarnation  in  order  to  Redemption,"  and 
thereby  have  expressed  his  philosophy  of  reli- 
gion. He  would  also  have  said.  Redemption  and 
Incarnation  for  the  greater  glory  of  God,  and 
thereby  have  expressed  his  philosophy  of  history. 

30 


Think  then  of  Dr.  A.  A.  Hodge  as  having 
an  acute  mind ;  interested  in  theological  specula- 
tion ;  rethinking  independently  the  old  questions ; 
analytic  in  his  mental  processes  ;  full  of  scho- 
lastic subtleties  ;  bold,  confident,  intense  in  his 
convictions ;  filled  with  reverence  for  good  tradi- 
tions; holding  the  Reformed  faith  as  a  sacred 
trust,  and  also  as  a  personal  possession ;  pervaded 
by  this  faith  and  living  on  terms  of  easy  familiarity 
with  it;  able  to  distinguish  between  essence  and 
accident,  and  knowing  when  harmless  idiosyn- 
crasy runs  into  serious  doctrinal  divergence ; 
strong  in  his  convictions,  but  not  litigious  ;  tena- 
cious of  principle,  but  never  sticking  in  the 
bark :  a  sturdy,  robust  thinker,  always  ready  to 
defend  the  faith :  a  brilliant  thinker,  so  that,  as 
circumstances  required,  he  could  send  truth  out  in 
the  shining  drapery  of  soft  and  beautiful  speech;" 
or  shoot  it  forth  like  forked  lightning,  hot  and 
scathing,  to  leave  on  the  face  of  error  the  scarred 
record  of  its  presence — think  of  him,  I  say,  as 
exhibiting  this  many-sided  mental  expression, 
and  you  have  my  conception  of  the  type  of  theo- 
logians to  which  Dr.  Hodge  belonged.  Beyond 
all  question  he  takes_his  place  among  the  great 

3' 


men  of  America  and  the  great  theologians  of  the 
world. 

As  to  the  contents  of  Dr.  Hodge's  theology 
it  is  enough  to  say,  that  it  was  the  theology  of 
the  Reformed  Confessions  and  the  Shorter  Cate- 
chism :  it  was  the  theology  of  Paul  and  Augus- 
tine, of  Anselm  and  Calvin,  of  Turrettin  and 
Amesius,  of  William  Cunningham  and  Charles 
Hodge.  He  had  no  peculiar  views,  and  no  pecu- 
liar method  of  organizing  theological  dogmas. 
He  was  interested  in  the  methods  of  other  men, 
and  probably  took  more  trouble  to  compare  them 
with  one  another  than  his  father  had  ever  done : 
but  after  all,  he  has  no  taste  for  theological  archi- 
tecture ;  and  the  old-fashioned  four-square  house, 
consisting  of  Theology,  Anthropology,  Soteriol- 
ogy,  and  Eschatology,  with  all  its  obvious  faults 
of  logic,  pleased  him  by  its  roominess  and  sim- 
plicity. He  taught  the  same  theology  that  his 
father  had  taught  before  him ;  but  he  was  inde- 
pendent as  well  as  reverent,  and  1  prefer  his  state- 
ments sometimes  to  his  father's.  He  saw  that  his 
father  had  occasionally  spoken  on  such  topics  as 
Imputation  and  Original  Sin,  without  full  knowl- 
edge of  the  history  of  opinion,  and  he  was  more 


ready  than  were  those  who  had  passed  through 
the  heat  of  controversy  to  see  that  the  doctrine 
of  Orieinal  Sin  is  more  essential  to  Calvinism 
than  the  mode  of  explaining  or  accounting  for  it, 
whether  that  mode  be  Imputation,  Realism,  or 
Heredity.  A  strict  jure  divino  Presbyterianism 
would  have  found  in  him  a  poor  advocate,  organ- 
ization being  in  his  view  not  of  the  essence  of 
the  Church.  He  knew  that  prelacy  was  old,  but 
he  abhorred  Apostolic  Succession.  He  was  a 
Presbyterian  by  inheritance,  and  so  far  as  the 
main  principles  of  Presbyterianism  go,  by  convic- 
tion. He  regarded  all  man-made  schemes  for 
the  reunion  of  Christendom  as  Utopian,  whether 
proceeding  on  the  basis  of  the  prayer-book  or 
of  prelacy.  But  he  loved  to  dwell  upon  the 
historic  continuity  of  the  Church  through  all  the 
centuries  ;  accordingly  he  loved  the  "  Christian 
year,"  and  the  great  liturgical  formulas  that 
bind  the  centuries  together.  He  was  opposed 
to  the  reunion  of  the  Old  and  New  School  Pres- 
byterian Churches,  though  I  believe  he  voted  for 
it  at  the  last.  It  was  impossible  not  to  see  that 
his  sympathies  were  broadening  year  by  year. 
In  this  he  was  in  fact  only  giving  further  proof 

33 


that,  theologically  speaking,  the  sun  of  analysis 
had  set,  and  the  sun  of  synthesis  had  begun  to 
shine.  He  saw,  moreover,  that  in  the  new  issues 
coming  or  already  here,  the  old  men  on  both 
sides  would  now  stand  shoulder  to  shoulder. 
He  was  delighted  with  Dr.  Henry  B.  Smith's 
Systematic  Theology,  and  cordially  commended 
it  to  his  classes.  In  a  generous  article,  begun  but 
never  finished,  it  is  pleasant  to  see  how  fairly 
and  appreciatively  he  puts  the  two  theologies, 
Dr.  Smith's  and  Dr.  Hodge's,  side  by  side,  and, 
overlooking  minor  points,  treats  them  as  the 
two  great  cis-Atlantic  defences  of  the  Calvinistic 
system.  There  was  a  hot  controversy  in  the  old 
days  between  Dr.  Charles  Hodge  and  Dr.  Park, 
but  in  his  late  debate  Dr.  Park  has  had  no  greater 
admirer  than  he  of  whom  we  speak.  Dr.  Hodge 
had  an  accurate  eye  for  theological  perspective 
and  presented  truth  in  proper  proportions. 
He  held  the  church-doctrine  regarding  eternal 
punishment,  and  had  he  lived  would  have  put 
on  record  a  reasoned  protest  against  the  new 
belief  in  a  second  probation.  But  he  would  not 
have  given  the  doctrine  of  eternal  punishment 
a  place   co-ordinate  with  the  divinity  of  Christ, 

34 


or  the  inspiration   of  the  Scriptures.     He  was  a 
champion  of  Calvinistic  theology,  but  he  rightly 
thought  that  the  most  important  matter  now  is 
not  the  defence  of  Calvinism,  but  the  defence  of 
Christianity.     Accordingly,  in  all  his  later  writ- 
ings, he  affirms  with  ever  increasing  warmth  the 
doctrine  that  the  Scriptures  are  the  very  word  of 
God,  and   the   only  infallible   rule  of  faith   and 
practice.     He  was  impatient  of  any  literary  tam- 
pering with    the    Bible  that  would   weaken    its 
authority,  or  compromise  its  inspiration ;   and  he 
saw  in  the  appeal    to    Christian    consciousness, 
an  attempt  to  overthrow  the    supreme  authority 
of  the  Scriptures,  and  set   up  a  subjective   rule 
of  faith  under  the  sanctions  of  a  pious    plausi- 
bility.    Dr.  Charles  Hodge  took  pride,  I  think, 
in    saying  on  the  occasion  of   his   semi-centen- 
nial celebration,  that  Princeton  had  never  origi- 
nated a  single    new   idea.     We   all    understand 
the  sense  in  which  that  remark  is  true :  it  is  in 
that  sense,  therefore,  that  I  am  to  be  understood 
when  I  say  that  Dr.  A.  A.  Hodge  made  no  origi- 
nal contributions  to  the  science  of  theology.      If 
he  did,  it  was   in   his  very  able  article  entitled 
Ordo  Sahitis,  published  in  the  Princeton  Review, 

35 


which  I  think  he  probably  regarded  as  the  best 
piece  of  theological  work  he  ever  did. 

I  have  been  trvins:  to  show  what  Dr. 
Hodge  was  as  a  theologian.  Perhaps  I  shall 
succeed  better  if  I  remind  you  of  what  he  did. 
There  were  three  modes  in  which  Dr.  Hodge 
declared  himself  as  a  theologian  :  by  the  Press, 
the  Pulpit,  and  the  Professor's-Chair. 

Great  talkers  seldom  write  much.  Dr.  Hodge 
was  a  genius  in  oral  expression,  in  this  respect 
resembling  Dr.  Archibald  Alexander.  But  he 
wrote  easily  and  with  a  running  pen.  His  style 
is  very  spontaneous.  His  sentences  artless,  un- 
studied, sometimes  exquisitely  beautiful,  some- 
times cumbrous  and  greatly  needing  the  services 
of  the  file.  He  had,  in  fact,  two  styles.  He  was, 
on  the  one  hand,  a  scholastic  and  full  of  scho- 
lastic distinctions,  to  which  he  attached  great 
importance.  He  was  very  analytical,  and  when 
he  wrote  insisted  on  making  these  distinctions, 
and  on  marking  them  with  formal  exactness  as 
he  went  along.  So  that  it  is  not  always  an  easy 
matter  to  thread  our  way  through  a  thicket  of 
lower-case  letters,  Arabic  figures,  and  the  same 
repeated  in  brackets,  each  serving  to  mark  the 

36 


heads  and  sub-heads  of  an  analysis  increasing  in 
minuteness  at  every  step.  Tliis,  however,  is  the 
style  which  we  find  in  his  "  Outlines  "  and  in  the 
"  Commentary  on  the  Confession  of  Faith."  It 
is  the  style  in  which  he  liked  to  do  his  serious 
work,  and  the  only  one  by  which,  until  recently, 
he  had  made  himself  known.  On  the  other  hand, 
he  had  a  poet's  eye  for  metaphor  and  a  poet's 
ear  for  rhythm;  and,  had  he  chosen,  could  have 
excelled  as  a  writer  of  English  prose.  Some  of 
his  shorter  articles  reveal  his  capacity  in  this 
respect.  We  all  remember  the  characteristics 
of  his  style  in  these  articles, —  especially  the 
long  sentences,  crowded  with  dependent  clauses, 
cumulative,  now  arrested  in  their  flow  for  the 
writer  to  make  distinctions  or  guard  against 
being  misunderstood,  now  moving  slowly  on 
under  a  cumbrous  weight  of  words,  now  spark- 
ling with  simile,  and  then  ending  in  a  torrent  of 
strong  superlative  epithets  that  were  equally 
expressive  of  his  admiration  or  his  scorn.  I 
recall  his  article  on  Dean  Stanley  in  the  Catholic 
Presbyterian^  and  his  notice  of  Farrar's  Bampton 
Lectures  in  the  last  Presbyterian  Revieiv  as  illus- 
tratinsf  what  I  mean  ;    though   I  think  that  for 

37 


effective  writing  and  as  illustrating  a  more  chas- 
tened style,  he  has  done  nothing  that  is  quite 
equal  to  his  Biography  of  his  father.  His  first 
book  and  the  one  by  which  he  is  best  known  was 
his  "  Outlines  of  Theology,"  published  in  i860, 
and  at  different  intervals  since  republished  in 
Great  Britain  and  translated  into  Welsh,  modern 
Greek  and  Hindustani."^'  Of  course  this  work  owed 
its  first  appearance  to  the  relation  of  the  author  to 
his  father;  but  it  is  an  independent  study  of  the 
topic  with  which  it  deals,  and,  particularly  in  the 
enlarged  edition,  is  valuable  for  its  concise  and 
comprehensive  definitions.  Dr.  Hodge's  book 
on  the  Atonement  was  written  during  the  agita- 
tion of  the  Reunion  question,  and  is  still  one  of 
the  best  treatises  we  have  upon  the  subject.  His 
"Commentary  on  the  Confession  of  Faith"  is  a 
very  useful  book,  full  of  clear  thinking  and  com- 
pact statement.  Dr.  Hodge  contributed  also 
important  articles  to  Encyclopedias — Johnson's, 
McClintock  and  Strong's,  and  also  the  Schaff- 
Herzog.  He  published  several  theological  tracts 
and  pamphlets,  and  was  one  of  the  founders 
of  the    Presbyterian    Rcvieiv,    to    the  pages    of 

*A  translation  into  Malagasy  is  in  progress  and  one  into   Italian   ronteni- 
plated. 

38 


which  he  was  a  constant  contributor.  He  wrote 
the  important  article  entitled  Onio  Sahitis  to 
which  I  have  just  referred  ;  he  wrote  a  valuable 
controversial  article  for  the  North  American ; 
another  on  the  reunion  of  Christendom  for  The 
Century ;  and  an  admirably  written  paper  from 
his  pen  on  the  subject  of  '*  Religion  in  the 
Public  Schools  "  has  appeared  since  his  death  in 
the  Nezv  Princeton  Review.  But  he  was  not  dis- 
tinctively a  writer  of  Review-articles  as  were 
his  father  and^the  late  Dr.  Atwater :  his  literary 
activity  seemed  to  flow  more  naturally  in  other 
channels. 

Speaking  of  Dr.  Hodge  the  other  day,  some 
one  asked  me  if  he  was  the  pastor  of  a  church  or 
just  a  professor.  I  regarded  the  question  as  a 
naive  expression  of  the  popular  estimate  of  the 
class  to  which  I  belong:  and  it  may  be  true  that 
we  are  not  always  interesting  preachers.  Those 
who  reproach  us  for  this  sometimes  do  it  kindly 
and  under  the  guise  of  compliment,  saying  that 
we  are  too  learned  and  preach  over  the  heads  of 
the  people  ;  or  they  use  great  plainness  of  speech, 
saying  that  we  ride  hobbies  in  the  pulpit, 
and   preach    old    sermons  full   of  the  bones  of 

39 


theology  which,  like  those  of  Ezekiel's  valley  of 
vision,  are  very  many  and  very  dry.  Dr.  Hodge's 
preaching  was  not  of  this  sort.  He  had  been  a 
pastor  during  most  of  his  ministerial  life  and  had 
been  settled  over  four  congregations.  He  there- 
fore knew  the  people.  He  preached  old  sermons, 
but,  as  he  did  not  read  them,  he  went  through  the 
process  of  thinking  them  over  as  often  as  he 
preached  them.  It  was  the  old  metal,  but  it 
went  to  the  melting-pot  every  time,  and  the  red 
wine  of  divine  truth  was  poured  into  a  shapely 
cup  of  the  brightest  silver.  It  was  easy  for  him 
to  preach,  and  he  could  interest  and  instruct  an 
audience  with  very  little  effort.  His  materials 
were  always  within  easy  reach.  Philosophical 
thought,  theological  dogma,  historical  facts,  scien- 
tific illustrations,  poetic  images,  personal  expe- 
riences, local  allusions,  and  suggestions  springing 
out  of  recent  conversations,  were  ever  ready  to  do 
his  bidding.  He  had  only  to  will  it,  and  they  set 
themselves  in  array  and  passed  the  portal  of  his 
lips,  a  shining  company,  marching  to  the  rhythm 
of  a  solemn  music  in  the  service  of  the  Lord. 
There  were  some  sermons  that  he  preached  habit- 
ually.    They  were  never  written,  and,  I  fear,  can 

40 


never  be  reproduced.  These  sermons  had  grown 
from  small  beginnings.  They  were  never  elab- 
orated, nor  were  they  deliberately  planned  as 
great  efforts.  When  a  topic  was  in  the  preacher's 
mind  he  brooded  over  it,  then  preached  upon  it. 
If  the  subject  opened  promisingly,  he  would 
preach  the  sermon  again.  In  the  process  of 
repetition  from  time  to  time  it  would  naturally 
expand,  take  more  definite  shape,  and  become 
possessed  of  greater  literary  charm.  In  this  way 
the  sermon  on  tlie  Resurrection  became  one  of 
Dr.  Hodge's  great  discourses,  and  also  that  on 
the  Person  of  Christ,  and  the  Koinonia,  and 
Miracles,  and  the  Immanence  of  God,  and — best 
of  all,  perhaps  greatest  of  all — the  sermon  that 
he  loved  to  preach  so  well,  that  has  been 
listened  to  by  so  many  congregations,  that 
was  preached  in  the  Seminary  Chapel  and 
the  College  Chapel  in  Princeton,  that  was 
preached  in  this  city,  and  New  York,  and 
Washington,  and  Edinburgh :  the  sermon  on 
"My  Father's  house  of  many  mansions."  There 
are  few  preachers  like  him.  Indeed,  he  stood 
alone.  To  hear  him  when  he  was  at  his  best  was 
something  never  to  be  forgotten.      All  in  all — in 

41 


thought,  expression  and  delivery,  each  of  these 
great  sermons  was  a  wonderful  combination :  it 
was  a  union  of  theology,  philosophy,  Christian 
experience,  knowledge  of  human  nature,  quaint 
humor,  elaborate  description,  a  metaphor  dropped 
as  a  diamond  unobserved  might  fall  out  of  a 
casket,  facile  utterance,  a  disdain  of  elocution, 
few  gestures,  the  face  lighted  up,  the  eye  opened 
wide  as  though  the  speaker  saw  a  vision  of  glory, 
the  voice  trembling  when  the  Saviour's  name  is 
mentioned,  the  sensitive  frame  responding  to  the 
pressure  of  emotion,  and  emotion  finding  vent  at 
last  in  involuntary  tears. 

Dr.  Hodge  was  a  man  of  wit  and  humor. 
He  had  a  keen  sense  of  the  ludicrous.  Had  he 
chosen  to  make  preaching  a  matter  of  Sunday- 
entertainment,  he  could  have  preached  to  packed 
audiences  in  our  great  cities.  But  with  him 
preaching  was  a  serious  business ;  he  thought 
that  the  pulpit  was  no  place  for  joke  or  witticism, 
and  never  preached  without  producing  upon  his 
audience  an  impression  of  solemnity.  As  words 
are  commonly  used  among  us,  I  feel  that  I  am 
employing  a  tame  expression  when  I  say  that  he 
was  a  great  preacher.     I  think  he  was  one  of  the 

42 


greatest  preachers  in  this  land;  and  in  compari- 
son with  some  who,  by  their  concessions  to  a 
popular  demand  for  pulpit  levity  and  meretri- 
cious rhetoric  are  feeding  the  multitudes  who 
listen  to  them  with  that  which  is  not  bread,  and 
are  called  great  by  the  world,  he  was — I  am 
tempted  to  use  his  own  favorite  extravagance  of 
speech,  and  say  that  he  was — "infinitely"  great. 

Yet  let  me  not  exaggerate :  Dr.  Hodge  could 
be  disappointing  at  times.  Though  he  never  failed 
to  be  instructive,  the  glow  of  enthusiasm  was 
sometimes  lacking  ;  and  if  anything  occurred  to 
interfere  with  his  spontaneity,  the  weak  voice  and 
labored  utterance  formed  a  union  hostile  to  ora- 
torical effect.  Nor  do  I  doubt  that  he  revealed 
the  highest  qualities  of  his  mind  most  frequently 
in  the  professor's-chair.  As  a  former  pupil,  now 
a  Free  Church  minister  in  Glasgow,  writes:  "It 
was  in  the  class-room  that  he  shone,  or  in  a 
company  small  enough  or  congenial  enough  for 
him  'to  commit  himself  unto  them.'" 

It  is  possible  to  entertain  several  different 
views  of  what  a  professor's  function  ought  to  be. 
Much  depends  upon  the  department  and  not  a 
little  upon  the  man.     According  to  one  view,  a 


professorship  means  an  opportunity  for  special 
investigation  and  leisurely  research,  the  results  of 
which  are  communicated  in  the  lecture-room  to 
men  who  desire  knowledge.  The  desire  to  know 
being  presupposed,  the  matter  and  not  the  man- 
ner of  presentation  is  the  main  thing.  The  sub- 
ject is  supposed  to  be  treated  completely.  If  the 
student  does  not  intend  to- prosecute  it  further,  it 
is  probable  that  his  best  education  in  it  is  secured 
by  his  placing  himself  in  contact  with  a  living 
master  and  then  reproducing  in  written  form 
the  substance  of  what  he  hears.  If  he  intend  to 
prosecute  the  subject  by  independent  research  as 
good  a  preparation  for  it  as  he  can  have  is  prob- 
ably of  the  kind  described.  According  to  another 
view,  the  academic  lecture  is  intended  to  stimu- 
late interest  in  the  department  to  which  it 
belongs.  It  may  deal  in  outline  with  the  whole 
department,  or  be  a  discussion  of  a  single  phase 
of  it.  In  either  case,  it  is  the  particular  contri- 
bution that  the  professor  brings  to  the  advance- 
ment of  his  science.  But  it  is  not  intended  to  be 
a  substitute  for  independent  reading,  and  that 
mastery  of  the  subject  which  only  independent 
reading  can  give.     With  this  view  of  the  purpose 

44 


which  it  serves,  a  great  deal  depends  upon  its 
form :  and,  instead  of  being  a  series  of  paragraphs 
dictated  to  a  class,  or  a  compact  and  solid  mass 
of  fact  or  argument  to  be  read  slowly  and  trans- 
ferred to  note-books,  it  is  written  with  some 
regard  to  the  requirements  of  literary  art  as 
something  addressed  to  the  ear  and  intended  to 
please  as  well  as  to  inform.  According  to  still 
another  view,  the  professor's  business  is  to  see 
that  a  certain  definite  body  of  instruction  is  safely 
and  surely  transferred  from  his  mind  to  the  minds 
of  those  who  hear  him.  He  is  not  only  or  even 
chiefly  to  present  truth  that  men  may  receive  if 
they  choose  :  he  is  to  see  that  they  receive  it. 
Each  type  of  professorial  work,  when  it  is  of  a 
high  order,  will  secure  good  results,  and  it  is  not 
well  to  institute  comparisons  between  methods 
that  are  so  different.  The  teacher  of  the  first 
class  will  reach  those  who,  either  by  natural  taste, 
or  the  pressure  of  sufficient  motive,  are  willing  to 
undergo  the  labor  of  diligent  note-taking.  The 
man  of  the  second  class  will  communicate  less 
knowledge,  but  will,  perhaps,  make  up  for  this  by 
the  enthusiasm  which  he  awakens.  Men  will,  at 
least,  listen  to  him- with  interest,  will  be  enter- 

45 


tained,  will  absorb  something,  and  a  few  will  be 
put  upon  the  road  of  special  investigation  and 
independent  inquiry.  The  man  of  the  third  class, 
being  less  intent  on  giving  than  on  seeing  that 
the  students  get  what  he  gives,  will  succeed  in 
filling  the  largest  number  of  minds  with  his 
teaching.  He  will,  perhaps,  so  emphasize  his 
duty  as  a  teacher,  that  his  students  will  miss  the 
charm  of  feeling  that  he  is  a  fellow-laborer  with 
them  in  fields  which  they  are  invited  to  enter,  and 
which  to  comers  even  as  late  as  they  still  hold 
out  the  promise  of  reward  ;  but  he  will  succeed 
in  incorporating  the  body  of  truth  which  he 
expounds  into  their  mental  life.  He  will  give 
them  what  can  never  be  forgotten :  a  xzr^fia  ic  dei — 
something  that  is  their  own,  something  indeed 
that  is  part  of  their  very  selfhood.  Now  it  is 
easy  to  see  that  since  Systematic  Theology  con- 
stitutes the  matter  that  men  are  to  preach,  it  is 
very  important  that  the  teaching  of  this  depart- 
ment should  be  of  the  kind  last  referred  to  ;  and 
I  regard  Dr.  Hodge  as  the  greatest  teacher  of 
this  type  I  ever  knew.  He  was  exacting  and  in- 
tolerant of  indolence  and  irregularity.  He  was 
very  far  from  being  a  simple  hearer  of  recitations, 

46 


but  he  insisted  first  of  all  that  students  should 
know  the  text-book, — and  they  usually  did.     He 
made  use  of  his  father's  Systematic  Theology ;  but 
that  book  in  his  hands  was  like  an  illuminated 
mediaeval  manuscript,  and  from  title-page  to  colo- 
phon,  it   was   filled   with   the    bright,    beautiful, 
quaint  and  sometimes  grotesque  creations  of  his 
fancy.     The   students  saw  every  doctrine  as  it 
presented   itself  to   his  vision.     They  benefited 
by  his  power  of  concise  statement  and  clear  defi- 
nition.      He  held  up  the  representative  systems 
of  theology  with  such  sharpness  of  outline  and 
such  accuracy  of  articulation,  that  they  knew  them 
as  one  knows  the  face  of  a  familiar  friend.     They 
questioned  him,  and  he  answered  their  questions. 
They  raised  objections,  and  so  woke  in  him  the 
hot  fires  of  his  polemic.      They  failed  sometimes 
to  comprehend  a  dogma,  and  he  swept  the  uni- 
verse for  illustrations,  and  poured  them    out  so 
copiously   and   with  such  manifest  spontaneity, 
that  they  overwhelmed  him  with  their  applause. 
"  And  yet,"  says  one  of  his    admiring   pupils,* 
**  he    never    confused    simile    and    logic ;      and 
although  his  wealth  of  happy  imagery  led   him 

*Rev.  Paul  van  Dyke. 

47 


to  support  many  of  his  arguments  with  an  illustra- 
tion, he  often  warned  his  students  never  to  mis- 
take a  metaphor  for  an  argument.  His  logic 
was  the  logic  of  the  Westminster  divines,  admir- 
ably suited  to  its  purpose,  exact,  straightforward, 
and  not  lacking  in  the  warmth  of  intellectual  and 
emotional  enthusiasm."  I  cannot  do  better  than 
continue  the  quotation  :  "  His  patience  and  intel- 
lectual charity  were  both  large,  and  he  allowed 
the  greatest  freedom  of  debate  to  his  scholars. 
In  these  contests,  he  was  always  chivalrous,  and 
dismounted  to  meet  his  adversary  on  equal  terms. 

His  many  peculiarities  of  speech 

and  manner  never  impaired  his  courtesy  as  a 
gentleman  or  his  dignity  as  a  professor.  He  had 
a  powerful  brain,  a  large  heart,  and  the  simple 
faith  of  a  little  child.  He  taught  the  knowledge 
of  God  with  the  learning  of  a  scholar,  the  sym- 
pathy of  a  loving  man,  and  the  enthusiasm  of  a 
loving  Christian." 

"  I  was  struck,"  says  Dr.  Shedd,  "  with  his 
great  directness  and  sincerity,  intellectually  as 
well  as  morally.  His  mind,  like  his  heart,  worked 
without  ambiguity  or  drawback.  Hence  his  en- 
ergy in  the  perception  and  statement  of  truth — 

48 


a  quality  that  showed  itself  in  his  uncommon 
abihty  to  popularize  scientific  theology."  This 
is  said  in  full  appreciation  of  Dr.  Hodge's  posi- 
tion as  a  scientific  theologian,  as  will  appear  from 
another  passage,  where  the  same  eminent  divine 
says  :  "  His  published  works  show  both  logical 
and  theological  power.  While  founding  upon 
the  massive  and  luminous  system  of  his  vener- 
ated father,  he  methodizes,  condenses,  and  forti- 
fies with  an  originality  that  evinces  his  compe- 
tence to  have  made  a  system  of  his  own."  And 
yet  I  think  I  am  assigning  Dr.  A.  A.  Hodge 
his  true  place  among  contemporary  theologians 
in  this  country  and  abroad  if  I  say,  in  words 
suggested  by  the  happy  phrase  of  Dr.  Shedd, 
that  he  is  pre-eminently  the  popularizer  of 
scientific  theology.  No  better  illustration  of  his 
power  in  this  respect  need  be  asked  for  than  his 
lectures  delivered  in  this  city  last  winter.  I  have 
not  alluded  to  them  under  any  of  the  three 
categories  to  which  reference  has  been  made, 
for  they  are  a  combination  of  his  powers  in 
each  of  these  three  forms  of  manifestation,  and 
are,  indeed,  the  coronation  of  his  public  life. 
They  were  addressed-  to  eager  ears  in  this  city, 

49 


but  they  were  greeted,  also,  by  eager  eyes  when 
they  went  out  on  their  wider  mission  upon  the 
wings  of  the  newspaper  press :  and  they  will  soon 
appear  in  a  volume  that  will  find  a  welcome,  I 
hope,  in  many  thousand  households — and  not 
in  Presbyterian  households  only,  for  the  truths 
declared  in  these  lectures  are,  for  the  most  part, 
the  common  inheritance  of  all  who  love  the 
Lord;  and  by  his  defence  of  them  Dr.  Hodge  has 
made  Christendom  his  debtor.  He  was  build- 
ing better  than  he  knew.  I  remember  very  well 
how  his  characteristic  modesty  showed  itself  in 
connection  with  the  printing  of  these  lectures : 
how  it  distressed  him  to  have  his  own  quaint, 
and  sometimes  queer  colloquialisms  brought 
under  his  eye  through  the  fidelity  of  a  shorthand 
report ;  and  how,  if  he  had  acted  upon  his  own 
impulses,  he  would  have  stripped  these  birds  of 
paradise  of  half  their  plumage.  But  I  am  glad 
that  we  shall  have  at  least  one  volume  that  can 
be  trusted  as  a  faithful  mirror  of  his  mental  life. 
These  lectures  are  not  simply  illustrations  of  his 
academic  power,  though  his  pupils  will  recognize 
in  them  the  manner  with  which  they  are  familiar. 
Nor  are  they  simply  sermons,  though  his  ordi- 

50 


nary   pulpit    discourse    possessed    many    of  the 
qualities   that  are  present  here.      The  preacher 
and  the  professor  are  alike  visible  in  these  lec- 
tures, and  both  in  their  best  estate.     Dr.  Hodge 
was  to  have  delivered  another  course  of  lectures 
in   Philadelphia  this  winter.     He  was  lecturing 
to  large  audiences  in  Orange,  New  Jersey,  when 
taken    ill;    and    inquiries    were    already    afoot 
respecting  the   possibility  of  having   these   lec- 
tures delivered    in  other  cities.     When  I  think 
of  what  he  was  doing,  and  of  what,  had  his  life 
been  spared,  he  might  have  done,  I  am  reminded 
of  the  day  when  Abelard  lectured  to  vast  audi- 
ences in  Paris,  waking  a  century  from  its  intel- 
lectual   lethargy,  and    filling    the  popular  mind 
with    enthusiasm    for    philosophical     theology. 
And  who   can   doubt  that  it  is  some  work  like 
that  which  Dr.  Hodge  was   so  well   qualified  to 
do,  that  our  age  and  country  need  ?     I  do  not 
take  a  discouraged  view  of  things.     As  I  look 
along  the    rugged    coast-line   of   the    centuries, 
my  eye    falls    upon  no  high-water  mark  above 
my    head,    telling    me    where    the    tide   of  reli- 
gious life  once  reached.     I  believe  we  watch  to- 
day a  rising   tide;  -though  at   this    moment,  it 

51 


may  be,  we  are  standing  on  the  sand  left  wet 
by  a  receding  wave.  But  when  I  think  that  the 
narrow  strip  exposed  to  view  by  this  receding 
wave  extends  so  far  adown  the  shores  of  life,  and 
that  the  interval  between  its  crepitant  retreat 
and  its  tumultuous  rebound  may  involve  the 
fortunes  of  a  generation,  I  have  some  sympathy 
with  those  who  face  the  relisfious  outlook  with 
feelings  bordering  on  fear.  We  see  men  turning 
away  from  God.  They  are  drinking  the  wine  of 
prosperity,  and  are  intoxicated  with  worldly  suc- 
cess ;  or  they  have  come  to  feel  the  hollowness 
of  the  world's  promises,  and  have  no  refuge  in 
a  better  life.  We  witness  excess  of  luxury,  and 
begin  to  apprehend  the  drying  up  of  the  chan- 
nels of  benevolence.  We  take  the  census  of  the 
church-going  population,  and  find  that  our  houses 
of  worship  are  poorly  filled  in  the  morning  and 
almost  deserted  at  night.  Men  who  have  never 
investigated  a  single  doctrine  pride  themselves 
on  their  intellectual  independence,  and  fall  easy 
victims  to  the  fallacies  of  a  shallow  skepticism. 
Ministers  of  the  gospel  feel  the  burden  that  is 
placed  upon  them ;  and,  in  order  to  escape  the 
imputation  of  dealing  in  platitudes,  or  in  their 

52 


endeavor  to  lift  the  gospel  chariot  out  of  the  rut  of 
routine,  sometimes  secularize  their  holy  calling, 
deal  in  pulpit  flippancies,  and  ensnare  their  audi- 
ences into  the  hearing  of  the  gospel  by  intro- 
ducing it  as  a  side-issue,  and  by  way  of  remote 
allusions.  We  need  a  theological  revival.  We 
need  an  era  of  conviction.  We  need — if  this 
appalling  inertia  and  religious  indifference  is  to 
be  overcome — the  outbreak  of  an  epidemic  of 
faith.  We  need  a  revolution  of  thought  that 
shall  reach  the  core  of  manhood  and  that  shall 
make  men  see  that  they  have  forsaken  God,  the 
fountain  of  living  waters,  and  have  hewn  out  unto 
themselves  cisterns,  broken  cisterns  that  can  hold 
no  water.  We  ^ed  a  prophet  who  can  speak 
in  words  that  shine  and  burn.  Alas  !  our  Elijah 
has  been  taken  away,  and  there  is  no  one  who 
can  wear  his  mantle.  We  can  only  hope,  that, 
by  the  blessing  of  God,  a  portion  of  his  spirit 
may  come  upon  his  surviving  colleagues,  upon 
the  ministers  of  this  city  who  meet  here  to-day 
to  do  honor  to  his  memory,  and  upon  the  whole 
Church  that  is  bereft  of  his  leadership. 

It  may  seem  to  some  of  you  that  my  admi- 
ration of  Dr.  Hodge   has   made  me  extravagant 

53 


in  his  praise,  and  that  standing  in  the  shadow  of 
a  great  sorrow  I  have  supposed  that  this  theo- 
logical eclipse  is  visible  over  a  wider  area  than 
it  is.  It  is  easy  to  fall  into  this  mistake.  But  I 
believe  that  the  judgments  I  have  expressed  are 
those  of  sober  truth.  From  far  and  near,  from 
other  lands,  and  from  all  quarters  of  this  land, 
the  testimonies  have  come  in  that  speak  of  the 
loss  which  Christendom  has  sustained  in  Dr. 
Hodge's  death.  Dr.  Cairns,  of  Edinburgh,  gives 
expression  to  a  sentiment  shared  by  multitudes, 
when  in  a  letter  to  Mrs.  Hodge,  he  says  :  "  The 
whole  Evangelical  Church  has  lost  in  him  a 
powerful  and  intrepid  defender  of  its  best  and 
dearest  beliefs ;  and — strong  as  is  the  array  of 
Presbyterians  on  your  continent — he  was  a  leader 
whom  we  could  ill  afford  to  lose." 

In  presenting  Dr.  Hodge  as  a  theologian,  I 
have  already  in  great  measure  described  the  man ; 
and  yet  I  think  we  must  come  a  little  closer  to 
his  personality  to  get  a  full  impression  of  what  he 
was,  and  to  understand  the  charm  that  invested 
his  public  life.  The  blending  of  attributes  in  his 
case,  and  the  interpenetration  of  his  public  and 
his  private  life,  are  very  well  appreciated  by  his 

54 


pupil,  Mr.  Salmond,  from  whose  letter  I  quoted  a 
little  while  ago,  when  he  says  :  "  His  courageous 
earnestness,  with  its  other  side  of  playful  humor 
and  quaint  hyperbole,  his  burning  sympathy  with 
all  that  is  good,  and  burning  indignation  at  all 
that  is  false  or  mean ;  his  personal  modesty, 
amounting  even  to  shyness,  with  its  counterpart 
of  fearless  and  candid  courage  in  defence  of 
truth — qualities  like  these  made  him  a  model 
professor  and  an  invaluable  friend." 

Dr.  Hodge  was  a  high-minded,  warm-hearted 
Christian  gentleman.  He  was  cast  in  a  unique 
mould  and  was  sid  generis.  He  could  only  have 
failed  to  be  a  gentleman  through  an  entire  sus- 
pension of  the  law  of  heredity ;  for  he  was  allied 
on  both  his  father's  and  his  mother's  side,  and 
for  several  generations,  to  some  of  the  best  and 
most  distinguished  families  in  this  city  and  this 
land.  Aristocratic  sympathies  were  very  strong 
in  him,  and  they  found  expression  sometimes  in 
an  extravagant  avowal  of  Toryism  that  was  partly 
jest,  and  partly  based  upon  a  real  conservatism 
of  sentiment  respecting  the  philosophy  of  social 
life.  Though  not  violating  proprieties,  he  had  na 
sedulous  regard    for   artificial    and    meaningless 

55 


conventionalities,  and  sometimes  carried  his  in- 
difference to  what  other  people  say  and  do,  a 
little  further  than  he  need  have  done.  Like  all 
men  of  genius,  he  was  eccentric ;  and  like  most 
positive  natures,  he  had  violent  likes  and  dislikes. 
If  he  was  in  an  abstracted  mood,  he  might  wear 
an  air  of  indifference,  which  was  in  no  sense 
intended  for  coldness.  But  he  made  no  effort 
at  concealment  if  men  were  not  congenial  to 
him,  and  he  recognized  his  right  to  "  shut  men 
out  of  his  universe,"  as  he  used  to  express  it, 
without  feeling  that  he  had  abated  any  of  their 
claims.  He  was  not  indifferent  to  the  luxuries 
that  money  will  purchase  nor  to  the  avenues  of 
usefulness  that  it  opens ;  and  when  associated 
with  refinement,  he  had  great  respect  both  for 
it  and  its  possessor  :  but  he  hated  the  sordid 
temper  that  money-making  so  often  begets,  and 
he  had  an  unmeasured  contempt  for  the  "  gold 
that  gilds  the  straitened  forehead  of  the  fool." 
I  think,  too,  that  he  sometimes  underestimated 
the  dimensions  of  the  rich  man's  forehead. 
When  his  prejudices  were  not  involved  he  could 
separate  the  chaff  from  the  wheat  in  his  estimates 
of   men ;   and   I  have   known  him  to  tolerate  a 

56 


great  deal  of  chaff  for  the  sake  of  a  very  little 
wheat.  He  was  a  quick  interpreter  of  human 
nature,  discriminating  in  his  judgments,  and  only- 
slow — by  reason  of  his  own  superlative  honesty 
— to  see  the  presence  of  sinister  motives.  At  the 
same  time,  I  cannot  say  that  he  was  eminently 
judicial:  his  blood  was  too  warm  for  that.  He 
had  a  keen  sense  of  the  ludicrous,  was  full  of 
pleasantry,  and,  sometimes,  when  unbending  after 
serious  effort,  would  abandon  himself  to  a  light- 
ness of  manner  and  an  Oriental  luxuriance  of 
speech,  that  I  have  no  doubt  have  sometimes 
shocked  those  who  regard  the  Professor  of 
Theology  as  committed  by  his  oath  of  office  to 
a  very  sedate  behavior.  I  think  he  had  some- 
what against  any  man  who  could  not  appreciate 
a  joke.  He  was  full  of  persiflage,  and  was  never 
happier  than  when  he  met  his  match  in  an  en- 
counter of  wit.  His  imagination  never  slept.  It 
was  constantly  weaving  new  fancies  and  coining 
new  figures  of  speech.  He  lived,  indeed,  in  his 
imagination  and  systematically  kept  the  ideal 
clock  in  advance  of  local  time.  He  was  always 
foreseeing  contingencies  and  providing  against 
them.     He  crossed-bridges  before  he  came  to 

57 


them.  Hence  he  was  prompt,  prudent  and  always 
beforehand.  Hence,  too,  he  suffered  twice :  suf- 
fered in  the  actual  experience  of  pain,  and  suffered 
in  anticipation  of  suffering.  His  imagination  took 
hold  of  the  possibilities  of  experience  in  dying 
and  he  shrank  from  them.  The  subject  was  often 
in  his  mind,  and  had  been  pondered,  I  doubt  not, 
profoundly,  although  in  his  conversation  on  this 
and  kindred  themes,  he  would  commonly  veil  the 
majestic  depths  of  his  nature  by  the  ripples  of 
pleasantry.  He  loved  the  beautiful,  was  fond  of 
surrounding  himself  with  beautiful  things,  and 
found  no  small  share  of  his  enjoyment  in  seeing 
how  others  enjoyed  them.  He  was  humble  and 
had  the  most  depreciative  estimate  of  himself. 
He  was  capable  of  admiration,  and  I  never  knew 
a  man  who  was  so  ready  to  give  ungrudging  praise. 
He  loved  with  a  large  heart  and  a  generous  and 
most  tender  affection.  Such  a  friend  as  he  one 
rarely  finds  in  this  selfish  world.  I  am  glad  to 
quote  this  testimony  regarding  him  from  one 
whom  he  greatly  admired.  Says  Professor  Young 
of  Princeton :  **  I  remember  him  as  one  of  the 
most  amusing,  humorous  and  witty  men  I  ever 
knew.     He  was  one  of  the  most  affectionate  and 


58 


tender-hearted,  one  of  the  mo^t  imaginative  and 
poetic,  and  also,  as  such  men  sometimes  are  not, 
one  of  the  most  transparently  and  purely  sincere 

and    truthful I    shall   never    forget 

some  of  our  walks  and  talks  when  questions  were 
raised  and  discussed  relating  to  the  incessant 
activity  of  God  as  the  foundation  of  physical 
entities  and  forces ;  or  to  the  correspondence 
between  revealed  and  humanly  discovered  truth, 
and  the  right  relations  and  mutual  respect  to  be 
observed  between  the  interpreter  of  Scripture  and 
the  investigator  of  science  ;  or  our  debates  as  to 
the  place  and  duties  of  earnest  Christians  in 
political  society.  I  feel  that  I  owe  more  to  him 
intellectually  and  morally,  for  perhaps  half  a 
dozen  hours  of  this  sort,  than  to  any  but  a 
very,  very  few  of  the  instructors  of  my  youth. 
He  was  broad  and  tolerant,  an  utter  despiser  of 
shams  and  conventionalities,  and  he  went  right 
to  the  bottom  of  things,  penetrating  almost  in- 
stantly to  the  rocks  and  vacuums  which  equally 
limit  our  human  powers  of  thought." 

Dr.  Hodge  was  a  timid  child,  and  perhaps 
would  have  made  a  poor  soldier.  But  he  had 
the  courage  of  his  convictions.     He  was  sincere 

59 


and  scorned  duplicity.  He  was  honest  and  chiv- 
alrous, and  hated  everything  that  was  sinister  or 
mean.  He  was  devoted  to  his  work  and  showed 
no  sign  of  self-seeking.  Men  sometimes  serve 
God  through  their  ambitions,  but  his  ambition 
was  to  serve  God.  Dr.  Hodge  had  been  religious 
from  childhood.  The  type  of  piety  which  he 
saw  in  his  father,  and  in  Dr.  Archibald  Alexander, 
whom  he  always  reverenced  as  a  saint  and  a  sage, 
gave  tone,  I  doubt  not,  to  his  religious  experience. 
He  had  been  chastened  by  sorrow.  First  his 
mother  died,  then  the  mother  of  his  children 
passed  away.  He  knew,  therefore,  how  to  inter- 
pret grief  and  to  comfort  others  with  the  com- 
fort wherewith  he  himself  had  been  comforted  of 
God.  I  shall  never  forget  the  prayer  he  made  at 
the  funeral  of  a  Christian  physician :  how,  taking 
the  varied  threads  of  human  experience,  he  wove 
them  into  a  veil  of  exquisite  texture,  and  laid 
it  across  the  face  of  death — how  in  the  seeming 
medley  of  earth's  music,  through  changing  keys 
and  in  spite  of  discord,  he  traced  the  love  of 
Christ  and  found  in  it  the  motif  that  unified 
it  all — how  he  led  us  along  the  winding  way  of 
life,  from  light  to  dark,  from  dark  to  light  again, 

60 


until  we  entered  the  celestial  city — and  how  he 
left  us  there  alone  with  God. 

Dr.  Hodge  was  deeply  interested  in  the 
spiritual  welfare  of  both  the  College  and  the 
Seminary.  He  was  not  simply  a  theological 
professor ;  he  was  a  great  spiritual  force.  In  a 
note  received  yesterday,  Dr.  McCosh  says :  "  I 
will  be  glad  if,  in  your  notice  of  our  friend  Dr. 
A.  A.  Hodge,  you  mention  that  he  is  nearly  as 
much  missed  in  the  College  as  in  the  Seminary. 
He  took  the  deepest  interest  in  us.  He  often 
preached  to  us,  and  preached  with  great  felicity 
of  illustration.  From  time  to  time  he  addressed 
our  students  at  their  prayer-meetings,  and  ever 
brought  the  weightiest  truths  to  bear  practically 
on  character  and  life.  We  all  feel  that  we  have 
lost  a  friend :  a  loss  to  us,  a  gain  to  heaven 
above."  A  loss,  indeed,  to  us,  a  gain  to  him  and 
heaven.  And  so  sweet  thoughts  are  mingled 
with  our  sorrow.  -  So  are  they  comforted  who 
called  him  father  and  to  whom  he  was  so  dear. 
So  finds  she  solace  in  her  grief  who  wears  to- 
day the  drapery  of  widowhood.  So  they  whose 
thought  of  him  grows  tender  when  memory 
brings  back  the  far-off  years,  find  resting-place 

6i 


for  hope  in  the  Father's  house  of  many  mansions. 
He  said  that  heaven  was  the  "  consummate  flower 
of  the  universe  " :  he  knows  its  beauty  and  its  fra- 
grance now.  He  hkened  its  welcome  to  that 
which  a  fond  parent  gives  a  beautiful  daughter 
whose  school-days  are  over:  he  knows  to-day 
how  far  the  reality  transcends  even  his  most 
tender  thought.  .  Those  who  loved  him  best  will 
grudge  him  least  his  welcome  home;  and  the 
pain  of  separation  will  be  lessened  when  they 
think  that  it  is  only  a  little  while,  and  then 
God's  love  shall  set  them  at  his  side  again. 

Dear  friend,  farewell !  Thy  going  has  made 
Heaven  near.  Full  many  a  vase  of  comely 
phrase  I  keep  among  my  treasures  as  witness 
to  the  cunning  of  thy  hand.  Thy  loving  words 
shall  live  in  memory's  garden  like  sweet  forget- 
me-nots  :  and  I  will  hold  the  broken  thread  of 
our  high  discourse  until  we  meet  again. 


62 


Date  Due 


